STORIES FROM THE PAST
50 years ago
It was the most enormous worm swimming through the sedate waters of Weist Lake that this young catfish had ever seen.
A catfish will rarely pass up an opportunity like that. And it did not.
Friday evening Billy Ray Oldham, a Brawley mechanic, dropped his fishing line into Wiest Lake. The catfish, with the undigested “worm” inside, was apparently not wise to the ways of fishing and got himself hooked.
Billy reeled him in.
That night he took home his 10-inch-long fish and gave it to Sam Grinder, an old timer who, among other things, has herded his share of sheep. He has also cut open a lot of fish.
He never cut open a fish quite like this.
After slicing neatly into the belly, Sam peeled open the fish to get at the entrails. He spotted this pale lump.
“What is that fish he’s eaten?” Sam asked himself aloud. He thought he was seeing things. Inserting the blade of his knife between the folds of the lump, Sam pulled up, and out popped the “worm.”
Only it wasn’t a worm; it was a young 20-inch-long rattlesnake.
The old timer has been around. He’s seen a lot of things. But he has never seen a rattlesnake inside a catfish.
“I just about quite flat,” Sam said.
But he got up the courage to place the snake in a sack. “I didn’t want to tell anybody,” he explained.” I figured nobody would believe me.”
40 years ago
The marketing and application of at least one cotton pest combatant in Imperial Valley, back on the market after two years, may be in violation of fair trade laws, this newspaper has learned.
The marketing and application of Fundal, a product of Nor-Am Agricultural Products Inc., has been restricted by the company to only three local suppliers and one local applicator.
When the Environmental Protection Agency recently approved use of Fundal and Galecron on 1978 cotton, many Imperial Valley farmers heaved a sigh of relief.
The two pesticides will be helpful, some assert, in the coming battle against the tobacco budworm, the pest that caused millions of dollars in cotton income losses in 1977. Fundal and Galecron have not been available to growers for the past two years.
30 years ago
One Valley team’s bad news was good for another in the Desert Valleys League Friday as the Central Spartans clinched the league baseball championship.
The Spartans locked up the title with a combination of a 13-4 victory over Calexico and Brawley’s 4-3 extra-inning loss to Indio. Central (10-1) has Tuesday off and plays Brawley Friday in El Centro in the final game of the regular season for both schools.
Palm Desert defeated Palo Verde in the other DVL contest Friday.
Tuesday, Brawley plays Coachella Valley in Brawley; Calexico travels to Palm Desert; Indio is at Palo Verde, and Central has a bye. The Spartans were supposed to play a non-league game with Holtville Wednesday, but that game has been cancelled.
20 years ago
CALEXICO — In an effort to reduce the number of fatalities among people attempting illegal entry into this country, the U.S. Border Patrol has started an informational campaign aimed at residents on both sides of the border.
Border Patrol officials staged a press conference Tuesday on the banks of the All-American Canal, just a few miles east of town, to alert Mexican and American residents to the dangers of entering the U.S. through the desert and local waterways such as the All-American or the New River.
Glicet Garvey, a supervisory agent with the Border Patrol, said, “We’re trying to make the people aware that are trying to cross the border about the dangers involved.”
Border Patrol officials chose the banks of the All-American to draw attention to the seemingly calm waters of the canal, which Garvey said are rife with dangerous and powerful undercurrents.